Kimo

1956
We'd arrive at Makaha and be the first ones out. The ocean was scented by kukui nuts that had floated down the river from the mountain valleys above. As we surfed, the sun would peak over the Waianae Mountains and eventually become a full-on glare. With the light, other surfers would arrive. We knew and we were friends with all of them.........
As the sun set, the beach again became deserted. The boys would make their way mauka up the riverbed and return with big, juicy watermelons. There would be no traffic on the road at that hour , and the watermelons were thrown up in the air and allowed to burst on the pavement. They were delicious eaten right off the road, Farrington Highway. It was the most fun time of my life.

from 'Kimo- A Collection of Short Stories' by Kimo Hollinger.
Published by Anoai Press (www.anoaipress.com)

DT going Fast

Daniel Thompson putting a fish into 5th gear. Broken truck = no surf = annoyed (and soon to be broke)

You can see our room from here...

Crescent Beach Motel, Crescent City CA
The far north. (Cali style anyway) We stayed 3rd from the right and it was a nice little place with all that beach out front. Good fish shack style restaurant next door too, I like this place alot.
Surfed Sunset Point on Mon but not as good as I'd hoped- still some decent swell but with more tide than it needed it was closing out on the bigger ones. Still, no-one dropped in on me and rides were had which makes it a good day all told. Topanga looked good but overcrowded and I'm sure Malibu was just horrible. I'm feelng the need for another holiday, but instead will go on an evening hike up in Angeles Crest.

Quiver #2

7'6" Matt Moore with a glassed on widowmaker fin set up.
Matt's a god in the Rincon area and I see why- this is a great board even with my wacky fin specs grafted on. Needs a bit of power/size to really work but chest high + and it's a fast, responsive board. It drives and tracks a bit like a single fin but you can hammer it into a turn and it holds. I love the widowmakers, and the fact that they sort of evolved through Terry Fitzgerald to Dave Parmenter makes me love them more . The swell was here but not so clean and shapely, and my window of opportunity wasn't the best- afternoons only when the winds had started. Porto and Hermosa were pretty blown out but with some size on Weds, and Thurs at Santa Monica was nuts, big closeouts and onshores, but what the hell. The weather was nice, the water comforatable and I could pretend I was in Hawaii for the drop. Not much you could do about the punishment when it closed out on my head 3 seconds later, but that's urban surfing I guess.

Whimbrel

One of the common shorebirds we see in summer, but a good one none the less. Along with the willets and the tiny little sanderlings it's these guys that are happily eating the little clams and sand crabs on most SoCal beaches. At Venice I've also seen ruddy turnstones and surfbirds, both of which I like because of their names and because the page they are on in the Peterson Guide To Western Birds (a truly useful and entertaining book) is headed Rock Loving Shorebirds. Maybe the Whimbrels are more into jazz. My terns the other day were almost certainly least terns which I've never seen before. Swell's here a little late, but it's here and I'm going to make use of it.